For the last 6 months, I've been working directly with Thomas Dolby designing the graphics for a big online game that is connected with his upcoming album A MAP OF THE FLOATING CITY. The game will kind of a trading game, but less annoying than other social games like Farmville, etc. The game will unfold a larger theme that is behind Dolby's new album, and as players work through the game, they will unlock special downloads and learn about Dolby's past music, and new stuff as well. The purpose of the game is to build an interactive community of players who will become dependent on one another to work together to get to the end point of the game, which include some seriously cool prizes!

Along with a crack team of webdev people scattered around the globe, we've crafted a rich, weird and nuanced little world that I think people here will dig. The game actually uses Google Earth to drive the play environment, and at this point, it looks really cool. We're maybe a month out from going live, but Dolby just announced the game to his fan club.

I've been going bananas, designing all manners of icons, symbols, maps, environments, ships/vessels, interfaces, and anything else needed for this near future altered world environment. As soon as it's live, I'll give you guys some links to check it out.

This part has been a real education for me; I've never worked on this level of game building, and I'm learning all kinds of stuff about the industry. It's also schooling me (or re-introducing me) to the amount of work that goes into from the ground up worldbuilding.

It has been a blast, as I've had to essentially "brand" a whole new world of countries, flags, tribes, boats, etc. The base premise of the game is a world after an "event" that has wiped the collective memories of the populace, and who are forced to move forth on the flooded world towards the newly navigable North Pole region in any kind of boat available from the equatorial areas, now too hot to live in. The huge gridlocks of boats will become the "Floating City" of the name.

The typography alone on that graphic is incredible. I've often admired your use of type, and I don't think people mention it enough. It really is nearly my favorite part of your works, especially your retrofuturist work.

@Finagle: I have done some custom type work, but at this point it hasn't been full font families, just the letterforms I need for a job. The type on this graphic is an altered version of a font called Fontleroy; I've added some of my own ligatures and other elements.Thanks for the nice words!

OK, FINALLY: As of Monday, March 28, you can purchase Thomas Dolby's "Oceanea" 3 song EP commercially, either a physical CD through CD BABY, or through the US and UK versions of ITUNES. Me? I'd go for the actual CD; you can enjoy the engrossing graphics more that way! ; )

And if you like what you hear, post about it! Thomas is releasing this music as a self-publisher, without major label backing, so you are helping out an indie artist by letting other people know that he's making music.